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Fresnel /fray-NEL/ projects Windows out into the world.

Fresnel is an infrastructure service which allows operating system images to be retrieved and provisioned from anywhere where internet access is available. It allows an authorized user to create sanctioned boot media that can be used to provision a machine, and it allows the installer to obtain files needed to build trust.

In a traditional deployment scenario, a device must be on-premises at a business location to be provisioned with a business appropriate operating system image. The imaging platform generally relies on PXE boot to permit the client system to begin the provisioning process.

The process introduces dependencies on the local network:

• PXE must be locally available in order to obtain a sanctioned boot image.
• The sanctioned boot image must come from a trustworthy source.
• The boot image must be able to obtain files/resources.
• The local network is considered trusted and is used to provide all of the above.

A basic solution to this problem is to provide all needed files and media on pre-created boot media, but this introduces limitations. The boot media often quickly becomes stale and it is undesirable to store any type of secret on such media.

Fresnel addresses these limitations by providing an intermediary broker for the bootstrap and provisioning process. The Fresnel infrastructure provides a place where an authorized user can obtain and generate up-to-date sanctioned boot media. It also provides a place where the installer can obtain the files needed to build trust prior to connecting to the business network. Once the provisioning process gains trust, trusted connectivity can be provided by a VPN or another solution to provides access to the remaining files needed to complete the provisioning process.

See the App Engine documentation for information on installing and configuring Fresnel App Engine and for information on how to make requests for signed-urls from App Engine.

See the CLI Documentation for information on using the Fresnel CLI to provision your installer.

We have a public discussion list at [email protected]

This is not an official Google product.